Tuesday, 19 January 2016

I apologise for my long absence and lack of visits, hopefully by early next month

I will be be in a better position to rectify that, I hope you will bear with me....

This month at Art With Heart we are not having a challenge (and things are being changed up for future months). Eileen Hull has released some fabulous new products at CHA (like the cantilever sewing box I featured hereand here) and Eileen has also re-released some all time favourite dies. One of these is the large Artist Trading Block (ATB) die (Szzix 658983) which is my personal favourite. The Design Team are showcasing these re-released dies during this month.

First up is my Artist Trading Block Storage Cabinet, details of which can be found here. I used some fabulous G45 papers to cover the cabinet. This shows how versatile the ATB die is, you can create 3D projects with it.

Next is my Valentine Heart Box, details can be found here. This was the first ATB I ever made and DH still has it out on show to this day.

Another favourite is an Andy Skinner inspired ATB, made using DecoArt products and Andy's Faux Letterpress Technique (details here)

My final choice is a project made for our lovely DT member Anna-Karin, we held a virtual baby shower for her, following the birth of her beautiful baby Leo (details here)

I hope you can see how wonderfully versatile the Artist Trading Block (ATB) die is. I have made houses with it - and even a steam train, it is such a fun die to use.

Edited: I have had some very exciting news. Thanks to Eileen Hull and Jo Packham of 'Where Women Create' I have had four pieces published in Sizzix's newest book release 'Make it a Party'. I am so thrilled and honoured, it is a beautiful book and wonderfully illustrated and it is my first time ever being published!!

Tuesday, 5 January 2016

I hope you have had a great start to the New Year! I am thrilled to be the Host this month at Anything But Cute, and since it is the beginning of a new year I have chosen 'Ring Out the Old, Bring in the New' as my challenge theme. To celebrate the New Year, we would like you to create a mixed media card or project using something 'new', perhaps you got some fabulous new craft item for Christmas or you have something new that you have not used yet - please do remember to tell us what the new item is!

For my birthday and Christmas this year I received some beautiful Sandra Evertson Archival Casts, by Prima and I really wanted to use the beautiful Archangel from the Archangels set. It just seemed right to create a shrine for the Archangel. I did some research on Pinterest to get some ideas and found a great board here. Near where I live there is a real life shrine (photo at the end of this post) which has fascinated me for years.

I started by cutting two Tim Holtz Cameo frames from black mount board (mat board) and I used Tim's Sized rectangle die to cut an aperture in one of the frames. I measured the opening and created a 'box' to go between the two frames. The spool was later trimmed to fit in the gap to create a sturdy stand.
The next view shows the assembled box, this was painted with black gesso all over and once dry I applied a coat of Americana Weathered Wood Crackle Medium. This is part of Andy Skinner's Mega Crackle technique. You can see a video of Andy using the technique here.
To create the base crackle I added a little DecoArt Media Fluid in Raw Umber to some DecoArt Media Crackle Paint. You can use up to 20% of coloured paint in the crackle paint to colour the Crackle Medium but I just wanted a hint of colour so I just used two little drops of the paint.

Once the paint is applied, this is how the result looks. It starts to crackle immediately and dries fairly quickly, but you really do need to let it completely dry before moving on.

To tint the shrine I used a thin wash, a mix of DecoArt Quinacridone Gold and water. Before the first layer dried I mixed some Prussian Blue Media Fluid with water and lightly brushed this over the entire piece. In real life it looks a little mottled, which I like. This is a view of the back. I always seal all of the crackled area with a sealant, in this case I used Ranger Glue and Seal.

To give the Archangel an aged look I first painted it with a thin coat of white gesso, followed by a very thin layer of Weathered Wood Crackle Medium and then finally a coat of DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic in Titanium White. The cracks are quite subtle.

Here is a close up showing the mega crackle on the shrine and the lighter crackle on the face of the Archangel. The hair was lightly tinted with DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic in Quinacridone Gold. The crown was painted with DecoArt Media Fluid in Metallic Gold

I also used my new Tim Holtz flower punch to create some flowers to decorate the shrine. The flowers were punched and then coloured lightly with Candied Apple Distress Spray Stain. I scrunched the wet flowers and used three sets of petals for each flower, adding white stamens from my stash.

I attached the finished flowers along with some Tim Holtz Holiday Greenery.

As I mentioned earlier, we have a real life shrine near where we live, it fascinates me because no matter what day of the week, or hour of the day you visit, it is always filled with flowers. It is on a steep hill on a very narrow road and stopping to have a look is not easy. It think it is beautiful and there is a great view of the Derbyshire hills behind.

Thanks so much for joining me here today, I hope you feel inspired to join in our challenge at Anything But Cute and I hope to see you again soon.

Friday, 1 January 2016

What better way to start the New Year at A Vintage Journey than to have a 'Vintage Travel and Luggage' theme for our next challenge? Brenda is our lovely and talented hostess this month. For this challenge we would like you to let your imagination carry you back to the bygone eras, setting off on an exciting journey for the New Year. Keeping it in Tim's style, we would love to see what item of luggage or mode of transport you would use on your journey - think hand luggage, travel trunks, hat boxes, hot air balloons, ships and trains.

I would love to have lived in a bygone era and perhaps travelled on the original Orient Express but since the Tim Holtz stamp I used features a North American steam engine, I will have to go with a wonderful trip I did a few years back, up the western seaboard of Canada, on one of these beautiful trains.

To create the background I used Tim's travel embossing folder, being careful to match up the pattern for the second pass through. I used Tim's Sized Oval die to cut the aperture. I lightly coloured the embossed surface with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. I wanted the oval to be raised so that the train would look like it was coming through a tunnel. However, it looked a little too dark so I simply used Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink and the spritz and flick technique to create a sky background instead. The embossed layer was added to the top using foam pads to create a raised aperture.

The train was stamped and coloured using Distress Markers and I fussy cut it and added it through the aperture hole. I attached a game spinner to one of the wheels for added interest.

The word band was first coated in Rusty Hinge Distress Paint to make the words more visible, I wiped away the excess before adding it to the card.

The tickets are from the same stamp set, I stamped and cut them out and aged them with Antique Linen Distress Ink. I punched out a date to make the ticket look more authentic.

I mounted the piece onto black card and then onto a Kraft card blank.

I do hope you will be able to enter Brenda's challenge over at A Vintage Journey. As always there is a great prize of £20 from our amazing Sponsor, Country View Crafts, for one randomly chosen entrant and the Design Team will choose three other Pinworthies.

As always, thanks for stopping by, all comments are greatly appreciated. I do hope I don't lose any of you with the changes Blogger/Google is making over the next couple of weeks.